ALAN MANNUS feared he’d never get a chance to prove himself outside Ireland.

The keeper admits he was thrilled when former boss Derek McInnes snapped him up for St Johnstone.

Mannus was lured from Shamrock Rovers and has taken over from Finn Peter Enckelman.

And now his reputation is sky high after superb displays against Rosenborg helped pave the way to tonight’s Europa League qualifier with Minsk.

Mannus, 31, was overlooked after trials at Bradford and Falkirk before McInnes handed him a chance at Perth.

Yesterday he admitted loyalty played a part in his decision to pen an extended deal last term before Saints had even sealed a European spot.

With Steve Lomas leaving for Millwall, Mannus was delighted to see his former Northern Ireland goalkeeping coach Tommy Wright promoted to the top post.

He said: “Working with Tommy was good for me so I decided to settle here.

“I’d tried to get to the UK several times but no one took me on until Saints signed me.

“When I was going out of contract in the summer I spoke with my family and we talked about how St Johnstone were the only team to show an interest in me. I’d love to play in England one day but I had no problems staying here. I signed a week before the last game of the season – it was before we got into Europe.

“I didn’t want to run my contract down and see what happened. I had a good offer, the club wanted me so I decided to stay.”

Mannus recalled chasing his dream at Bradford when Stuart McCall was boss. Ironically, the Motherwell manager was linked with the Ulsterman when Darren Randolph planned a move south.

The keeper said: “I’d been at Linfield and wanted to try English football. Stuart was great and treated me really well but being on trial is hard.

“The keeper coach was on holiday and I played in a couple of friendlies. I don’t think we conceded a goal.

“Stuart told me he couldn’t offer me anything because he’d not seen enough. It might have been different if they’d had a goalkeeping coach but I respected him for being honest.

“Falkirk took me for three days when Eddie May was manager but they had the Austrian Robert Olejnik and thought I was too similar to him.

“Steven Pressley told me straight which I respect him for. During that time I’d been speaking with Tommy Wright and Michael O’Neill at Shamrock Rovers. I could have gone to Malta but Tommy invited me down to Dublin. I played against Hibs in pre-season and enjoyed it.

“Working with Tommy was good for me so I decided to settle there. We are together again here and I’m just glad to be here and be part of it.

“We finished third and we’ve won away from home for the first time in Europe, knocking Rosenborg out.

“Those games were as good as anything I’ve done in my career. It was a bit frantic at the end when they were pumping the ball forward and the second half seemed to be pretty long but we got over the line.

“We’re going to have to do it again to give ourselves a chance against Minsk.

“It’s important we don’t think that because we have knocked out a big name we’ve done the hard bit and it won’t be as difficult.”